Alyson Hallett was brought up in Street, Somerset. Her childhood was infused with the shoe factory where her father worked, the view of Glastonbury Tor in the distance and the lattice of rhynes that criss-crossed the Levels.

She has lived in various places including Paris, Iona, Glasgow, Bristol and currently resides in the remote north Devon town of Hartland where she has been poet-in-residence at The Small School for the past three years. Previous residencies include writer-in-residence at the University of the West of England and writer-in-residence at Arts Council England, South West for the Year of the Artist.

Landscapes and cityscapes, love and memory, travel and transition: these are the core ingredients that bubble away in Alyson's work and life. She has published short stories, written drama for Radio 4, and has a poem carved into Milsom Street pavement in Bath. Her ongoing project, the migration habits of stones, involves carrying stones around the world with words carved into them.

The Stone Library is Alyson Hallett's first full volume.

Cover illustration: Begberry Cliffs, woodcut by Merlyn Chesterman.

Published by

You can order a copy directly from the publishers, Peterloo Poets via their website :

And love will come,
never mind this morning's sun
sifting through leaves to plant itself
in patches on the ground,
never mind the phone ringing,
the steaming cup of tea on the kitchen table -

Your whole life a stable of measured
this and that, the bric-a-brac
of days lived with terror. Love
will come; an evening decked
with stars, cars, this burning lamp
as you undress for bed suddenly shaken
like earth at the point of a fault -

Love will come and you will stand
in this stark moment, half-naked,
a tremble of rakish and ghostly monks
in the corner muttering yes,
it is already written, everything done
must also be undone.